Sundeen was on a mission.....

Posted by Wayne G. Barber & Photos by Wayne G. Barber.

The blue bird sky Sunday race day started with the four time limited sportsman champion Scott Sundeen looking for his first victory of the short seven race schedule. The division race had Shawn Monahan leading at 252 points to 216 for Sundeen with two events to go.
 The practice had Sundeen in the new car on top of the charts and then proved it by dominating his heat race.

Monahan has always been known for running for wins and not points but this chance was looking very good for a driver that can drive any type of race car to join the record books with a Limited Sportsman Track Championship at Thompson.
 The green flag came down and the former 2013 division champion Steve Kenneway #26 dive bombed from fourth to the early lead and set a torrid pace for the 20 lap sprint. Brent Gleason who has been the fastest in this division all year matched his surge for the claim for the lead and the old pro's who started from the 5th hole to the 8th hole which included 5 time champion Larry Barnett, Scott Sundeen and Shawn Monahan had to make a quick move or be out of the running.
 Sundeen burped on the start finish lane at the end of lap one and headed for the infield and then turned back onto the track with a few battle scars from the lack of horse power and lost 17 spots of the nice 27 car field. We all looked at each other in the press box and wondered if the Old Fox (Sundeen) could drive his way to the front another time in his Hall of Fame career.
 The march was on for him and for the other seasoned veterans to do what they do best in a race car.
 When Sundeen reached Barnett everyone grabbed their seats to witness another classic duel between these two stars and they did just that for two laps of side by side action and Barnetts car faded just a notch for Sundeen to take the spot. All along was Monahan staying in the top 5 to pounce if the sheet metal started to fly ahead. On lap 19 Sundeen made the down low pass of sticking his nose in making it stick for the impressive victory.  The veteran wheelman who spoke about the tough battle to the front in victory lane. “We had a really good car. They were being rough up front and I just stuck my nose in and got them with a couple to go,” Sundeen said.Brent Gleason claimed the silver metal today and Kenneway led the most laps and a well earned third place for his race team and Shawn Monahan is where he wants to be by entering the final points race of 2017 at the October World Series with a 29 point lead over Sundeen, 300 to 271  Next is Brent Gleason at 252 with a very costly win early in the season which resulted in a DQ and 50 points that would have changed this whole race re-cap. Maybe the track should increase the distance of this fan friendly full fendered race to 25 laps or even 30 and pitch in a extra few bucks into the purse.
The car count is there and the quality of the drivers could not be any higher in New England.
 Have to admit that I miss Al Stone, Phil Jacques and Josh Wood in the field today.
 My hard luck charger award go's to last years division champion Ryan Waterman who dented the cement wall with Michael Malbaurn and hit the pits and made it back out and again from the back of the field garnered a fifth place finish that had to feel as good as a win for this fast maturing Rock Star in his black Darth Vader #75   Thank You, to everyone who was in this race for the awesome performance to the largest roar from the grandstands in this scribes opinion today.

LIMITED SPORTSMAN FINISH TOP-10: 1. Scott Sundeen (Sutton, MA); 2. Brent Gleason (Griswold, CT); 3. Steve Kenneway (Lowell, MA); 4. Shawn Monahan (Waterford, CT); 5. Ryan Waterman (Danielson, CT); 6. Jesse Gleason (Lisbon, CT); 7. Michael Palin (Dudley, MA); 8. Larry Barnett (Moosup, CT); 9. Kevin Bowe (Smithfield, RI); 10. Corey Fanning